


A Spell On My Heart

by Lion_owl



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: The Next Generation
Genre: F/M, Holodecks/Holosuites, Technobabble, felix is julian's friend who wrote his our man bashir and vic fontaine holoprogrammes by the way, theres a tiny niche of us dedicated to developing his and palis delon's characters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-04
Updated: 2017-07-04
Packaged: 2018-11-23 02:56:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,385
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11393934
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lion_owl/pseuds/Lion_owl
Summary: When Reg requests that Felix visits the Enterprise to help fix a holodeck malfunction, he and Deanna find themselves rather taken with each other





	A Spell On My Heart

**Author's Note:**

> edit: half the credit must go to my co-author, background_alien, who has now deleted their account
> 
> Since Felix never appeared on screen, we decided to find our own actor to give us a visual on him. we decided on Rupert Young
> 
>  

Betazed. It had been so long since she’d been home. She stood barefoot on the sand, looking out across the rippling waters of the Opal Sea. Home. She closed her eyes, and breathed in the fresh air, scented with the luscious Muktok plants scattered across the grassland behind her.

Pity, it wasn’t real.

With a sigh, she picked up her shoes and started walking back to the town, the wind blowing her hair and her lilac dress behind her as the rays of the sun warmed her body.

Pity, it was all artificially generated.

This far out, what she wouldn’t give for even the slightest taste of home.

She heard them before she saw them, the sound of children laughing carried on the breeze as she reached the outskirts of the settlement. As she headed for the archway into the courtyard, she failed to register the building drifting towards her.

“Look at this!” a child shrieked, giggling. “I can fly!”

“We’re not flying, Mara,” the indignant voice of an older child. “We’re floating. You ought to know the difference.”

Floating? It suddenly occurred to Deanna to realise something was odd. There were buildings, vehicles and trees, all floating around as though someone had turned off the gravity. Had this happened so suddenly, or was she truly so tired?

“Computer, arch,” she called, and the cold grey metal appeared before her. She activated the comm system. “Troi to Captain Picard.”

 

**

Deanna followed Reg, Geordi, and Felix – an old colleague of Reg’s from a previous posting, and not too bad-looking, if she said so herself – into Holodeck Three.

“Okay, Counsellor, try running your program again,” Geordi instructed. Deanna nodded.

“Computer, run program ‘Troi Five’.” The black-and-yellow holodeck grid disappeared and was replaced once more by the serenity of Betazed, marred with a strong note of surrealism as the characters and scenery drifted through the open air. Felix let out a low whistle as he looked around.

“Wow. Reg, I thought you said you were a good engineer,” he teased. Reg chuckled nervously.

“I-I don’t know what to tell you, Felix.”

“He’s a fine engineer, our holodecks are just moody,” Geordi said. “Now, we’ve tried resequencing the grid but it didn’t seem to have any effect.”

“That’s because it’s not an sequencing issue.” Felix knelt down and opened his toolkit, extracting a tiny blue computer chip of some kind. “Your object alignment chip is fried. The projectors don’t know where the floor is.” He glanced at Deanna, and she recognised that the last sentence was for her benefit.

“Of course!” Reg slapped his hand to his forehead comically. “Why didn’t I think of that?”

“Computer, end program,” said Felix, and the scene was again replaced by the gridded room. “You’ve got to think outside the box, Reg. So to speak.”

He handed the chip to Geordi and the two engineers made for the door. As Felix closed up his toolkit he looked up at Deanna.

“Betazed,” he noted with a slight nod. “I haven’t been there in years.”

“Me neither,” replied Deanna with a smile, and as she allowed her mind to reach out slightly, she was surprised to find Felix’s weakly reaching back.

 

**

 

“You’re El-Aurian, aren’t you?”

Deanna watched with some surprise as the holo-technician leaned against the bar, punctuating his query with an arched eyebrow. Guinan seemed characteristically unfazed, pouring Felix’s glass of Andorian ale and replacing the cork with a graceful sweep of her arm.

“That’s right,” the bartender replied.

“I’ve always wondered what it must be like, living for such a long time,” Felix said pensively, taking a sip of the bright blue drink.

“I’ve wondered something similar about your lifespans.” Guinan smiled one of her cryptic smiles. “It’s not easy to see outside your own frame of reference.”

“No offence intended,” Felix replied, putting up a staying hand. “I just wonder what it must be like to see empires rise and fall, to see cultures shift from steam engines to warp drives. Is it difficult to be... surprised? When you see the same pattern repeat itself, over and over again?”

Deanna watched as Guinan fixed Felix with a look that was, well, very Guinan-like. Somewhere between shrewd consideration and mild amusement. Deanna could never read Guinan in the same way she could a human or another Betazoid, but she could feel the comforting empathic lull that the bartender often seemed to radiate.

“I wouldn’t say I’m never surprised,” Guinan replied, “patterns repeat, but the circumstances change. People have a way of keeping things interesting; there’s permanence in that.”

“I guess it is a matter of perspective.” Felix laughed softly. “There isn’t a lot of permanence when it comes to holograms.”

Guinan smiled again and turned her attention to the two blue-clad ensigns who had walked up to the bar. With a nod to Deanna, Felix led the way back to their table.

“You recognised she was an El-Aurian?” Deanna asked once they had sat down again. “Or has someone told you?”

“I guess you could say I’m empathic,” Felix leaned towards her, a glint in his eye. There was something comforting about him, something she couldn’t put a finger on. He winked at her and leaned back, taking a sip of his drink.

 _Don’t go_ , she thought.

A strand of his blond-brown hair fell in front of his eyes, and she reached up, about to push it back, but hesitated, her hand hovering in mid-air, she furrowed her brow. What was it about this man that made her feel so safe?

He took her hand, a smile curling the edge of his lips as he pressed a soft kiss to her thumb.

He was intoxicating.

She withdrew her hand, crossing her arms and leaning on the table. Withdrawn, and yet this action had brought their faces closer.

“Who are you?” She asked.

“I’m Felix,” He said, grinning.

“Do you have another name?” She tried.

“Where would be the fun in telling you that?” he asked, and she gulped.

 

**

 

Ten forward was rather busy when Geordi and Reg arrived, and they headed over towards the bar as they scanned the room for their dinner companions. Geordi was about to order a drink when he heard Reg exclaim, "there they are!"

He followed his friend's gaze, and saw Deanna and Felix sitting together, their hands linked and eyes locked, apparently oblivious to the noise of the pub around them.

Reg made a move as if to start walking toward them, but Geordi caught his arm before he could.

"Are you sure you want to go over there?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't I?" Reg stared at him in confusion, and Geordi responded with an exasperated tilt of his head.

"Look at them!" Then he shook his head. Was he imagining it? Maybe he was imagining it... he looked to Guinan for corroboration.

"I think Geordi's right," said Guinan, raising her eyebrows. "They seem busy to me."

Reg, who had been treating Geordi to a look of confusion, looked back across the room in time to see Deanna and Felix lean forward and press their foreheads together.

"Oh..." Realisation seemed to dawn on Reg's face. "I-I see what you mean."

Geordi smiled. "How about you and I go and have a drink in my quarters instead?"

"Good idea," Reg replied, casting another glance back at Deanna and Felix. Guinan nodded at them as they turned away from the bar.

 

**

 

"You're very close," Felix noted, running a finger down Deanna's cheek, not noticing that the men who had invited them here had been and gone.

"I was about to say the same to you," Deanna replied, slightly breathless.

"We don't rendezvous with the _Degrance_ for another three days, I’ll be on the _Enterprise_ until then." he pointed out, hoping his invitation was clear. After all, she was half Betazoid; she probably already knew what was on his mind. If only his own heritage had been stronger, and he could read her as easily.

"Hmm, three days." Deanna let her mind reach out again, and there was something stirring in his, definitely something. She reached for his hand. "I could take you back to Betazed."

"Or we could go to your quarters instead?" he suggested. "There's more privacy there."

"I like that idea," she replied. "I'll lead the way."


End file.
